Floods and Quakes: Could there be a connection? Some geophysicists think so

Salton Sea

Important Takeaways:

  • Floods linked to San Andreas quakes
  • Historical record underscores connections between reservoirs and seismic activity.
  • Geophysicists have linked historical earthquakes on the southern section of California’s famed San Andreas fault to ancient floods from the nearby Colorado River.
  • The work has broad implications for understanding how floods or reservoirs relate to quakes — a topic that gained new relevance in 2008, after a massive earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed more than 80,000 people. Some geologists have proposed that impounding water behind a newly built dam there helped hasten the quake.
  • Now, new work in southern California suggests that at least three times in the past 2,000 years, the weight of river water spreading across floodplains seems to have helped trigger earthquakes in the region.
  • The team subsequently analyzed data from 20-metre-deep cores pulled from the lake bed in 2003 during earlier work for the US Bureau of Reclamation. The cores showed layers of coarse sandy material laid down during floods — at the same time that seismic activity was known to have occurred.
  • “We found quakes happened about every 100 to 200 years and were correlated with floods,” says Brothers. “The Colorado River spills, loads the crust and then there is a rupture.” He says the team is “very confident” in its evidence for the existence of three flood-derived quakes, of roughly magnitude 6, which happened about 600 years ago, 1,100 years ago and 1,200–1,900 years ago. “Sediments don’t lie,” he says.
  • A quake of about magnitude 7 struck the southern San Andreas fault about 300 years ago; the next is a century overdue. One possible reason is the Hoover Dam: since its completion in 1936, the lower Colorado no longer floods.

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120 mudslides roughly 875,000 effected by power outages after deadly storm drops 10 inches of rain across California

Mudslide LA

Important Takeaways:

  • Deadly storm pummeling California with more than a foot of rain threatens to burst banks of LA River after killing three across state – as flash floods rip through Malibu and cause more than 120 mudslides – putting A-listers homes on red alert
  • A deadly Pacific storm, the second ‘Pineapple Express’ weather system to pummel the West Coast in less than a week, dumped torrential rain over Southern California on Monday, leading to streets being flooded and triggering more than 120 mudslides.
  • On Monday afternoon, LA Mayor Karen Bass issued a state of emergency declaration because of the flooding.
  • President Joe Biden spoke to California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Bass, pledging to provide federal aid to areas hit hard.
  • The deluge raised concerns for the region’s large population of homeless people, many of whom set up encampments along the river and on small dirt outcroppings and brush-covered islands.
  • Winds gusting to 75 miles per hour on Sunday downed trees and utility lines across the San Francisco Bay Area and California’s Central Coast, knocking out power to roughly 875,000 homes at the storm’s peak in that region.
  • About 215,000 people statewide were without power late on Monday night.
  • The greatest flash-flooding threat on Monday centered on Southern California, the NWS said, as the system slowly pivoted and pushed farther into the interior of California, but forecasters said ‘catastrophic’ impacts were unlikely.

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Major storm knocks out power and floods roadways across the East Coast

Cars-stranded-New-Jersey

Important Takeaways:

  • Three people are killed and more than 600,000 are without power after fierce storm across the northeast
  • Three people died after a storm plummeted into the northeast on Monday, leaving destruction across several states and almost 600,000 still without power.
  • The storm’s heavy rainfall – up to six inches in some areas – left significant flooding across the region, with many roads blocked due to debris and fallen trees.
  • A flood and travel advisory were issued in New York City and high winds alerts are in place from North Carolina to Maine.
  • More than 500 US flights were cancelled on Monday due to the storm, with New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and Boston Logan International Airport the most affected.
  • In Rhode Island, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed parts of Providence´s hurricane barrier system to prevent flooding from storm surge, Mayor Brett Smiley said.
  • In northeastern and central Pennsylvania, heavy rain that fell overnight flooded ponds, streams and creeks in several counties, forcing authorities to close several major roadways.

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North India flooding kills nearly two dozen

India Floods

Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Important Takeaways:

  • Flash floods and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 22 people in the Himalayan region of northern India, authorities said Monday. Several cities and towns across the region, including the sprawling Indian capital Delhi, saw heavy rainfall submerge roads and inundate houses over the weekend, bringing normal life to a standstill.
  • Delhi got a punishing six inches of rain on Saturday alone, the highest single-day downpour in 40 years. A 58-year-old woman died when the ceiling of her house collapsed amid the deluge in Delhi’s Karol Bagh area.
  • Himachal Pradesh has been the hardest-hit Indian state, with flash floods and landslides causing widespread devastation. Several houses and at least two key bridges in one area were swept away by the floods. At least five people were confirmed dead in the state as more than a dozen flash floods and 14 major landslides blocked over 700 roads.

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UN High Commissioner paints a dystopian future if we don’t address climate change and ignore the critics

Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Important Takeaways:

  • U.N. Rights Czar — ‘Truly Terrifying’ Famines, Floods, Fires, Ahead Unless ‘Climate Change’ Addressed
  • The Austrian lawyer turned U.N. official said the time has come for everyone to heed the unelected body and address the long list of concerns it sees as threatening the very existence of the planet.
  • Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, declared Monday the planet is “[…] burning. It’s melting. It’s flooding. It’s depleting. It’s drying. It’s dying,” as he evoked a “dystopian future” for all unless “climate change” is addressed.
  • “We, the generation with the most powerful technological tools in history, have the capacity to change it.”
  • Turk urged the world to “shun the green-washers” as well as those who cast doubt on “climate science.”

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As storms continue to hit California, farmers warn this could affect food making it to store shelves

Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Grocery store prices may rise as storm after storm floods farms across the state.
  • “California is the leading agricultural state in the United States,” produce expert Michael Marks said.
  • But now all the rain that has flooded farm fields is becoming a burden to the booming business.
  • “You cannot get a tractor onto your land when it’s all muddy.” Marks said.
  • “The longer you delay planting, the longer you’re going to have to wait for those crops in grocery stores,” said Andrew Genasci, executive director of San Joaquin Farm Bureau.

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UN officials warn that droughts, heatwaves, floods to become more intense

Revelation 16:9 “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.”

Important Takeaways:

  • 20 million at flood risk and 313 wildfires: Climate hazards in the US today
  • Some 20 million Americans are under flood alerts as storms push through the western US. Most A flood alert has also been issued for an area along the Illinois-Missouri border and near a few rivers in South Dakota, Texas and Florida.
  • Hurricane Fiona brought widespread destruction to Puerto Rico, the island is still picking up the pieces
  • 313 active wildfires burning across the US, mainly in the West. That includes 97 large fires that have burned through more than 900,000 acres alone — larger than Yosemite National Park.
  • Four million Americans are also under heat alerts, as temperatures and humidity rise along the Mississippi-Arkansas-Tennessee border
  • More than 113 million Americans are currently living in drought conditions.

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Water Scarcity, Floods and Dirty Water

Important Takeaways:

  • IPCC report: Half the world is facing water scarcity, floods and dirty water — large investments are needed for effective solutions
  • More than half the world’s population faces water scarcity for at least one month every year. Meanwhile, some people have to deal with too much water, while others have access to only poor water quality. That’s billions of people living with drought in Africa and India, facing flood risks in Bangladesh or lacking clean water due to excessive fertilizer use in the United States, Brazil, China and India.

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Unprecedented Storm Hit Queensland Australia

Important Takeaways:

  • Australia flooding: Torrential rain in Brisbane kills eight people after river peaks and floods homes
  • Thousands of homes and businesses in Queensland are underwater and police say several people are still unaccounted for. “I think everyone would agree no one has seen this amount of rain in such a short period of time,” the state premier said.
  • 2,145 homes and 2,356 business submerged and a further 10,827 properties flooded above their floorboards.
  • Emergency services have rescued more than 130 people in the past 24 hours, according to officials, with searches still under way.
  • Around 15,000 people have been evacuated.

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Death toll from Brazil flooding rises in Bahia’s ‘worst disaster’ ever

By Leonardo Benassatto and Sergio Queiroz

ITABUNA, Brazil (Reuters) – The death toll from floods hammering northeast Brazil rose to 20 on Monday, as the governor of Bahia state declared it the worst disaster in the state’s history and rescuers braced for more rain in the coming days.

Much of Bahia, home to about 15 million people, has suffered from intermittent flooding for weeks, after a long drought gave way to record rains. Flooding in some areas intensified late on Christmas Eve and early on Christmas Day after a pair of dams gave way, sending residents scrambling for higher ground.

Rescue workers patrolled in small dinghies around the city of Itabuna, in southern Bahia, plucking residents from their homes, including some who escaped through second-floor windows.

Bahia Governor Rui Costa said on Twitter that 72 municipalities were in a state of emergency.

“Unfortunately, we’re living through the worst disaster that has ever occurred in the history of Bahia,” he wrote.

Manfredo Santana, a lieutenant-colonel in Bahia’s firefighting corps, told Reuters that emergency workers had rescued 200 people in just three nearby towns. The heavy currents of the swollen Cachoeira River complicated rescue efforts.

“It’s difficult to maneuver even with jet skis,” he said. “Rescue teams had to retreat in certain moments.”

Bahia’s civil defense agency said on Monday afternoon that 20 people had died in 11 separate municipalities.

Newspaper O Globo, citing a state firefighting official, said that authorities are monitoring an additional 10 dams for any signs they may collapse.

The scrutiny of public infrastructure and urban planning comes just a couple years after the collapse of a mining dam in neighboring Minas Gerais state killed some 270 people.

In televised remarks, Costa, the Bahia governor, attributed the chaotic scenes in part to “errors that have been committed over the course of years.”

(Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Alistair Bell)